A random assortment of posts about stuff in the news, entertainment, things that interest me and maybe an occasional opinion.

September 9, 2012

Happy 50th Anniversary, "Colorful Channel 9"!

50 years ago tonight in Syracuse - September 9th, 1962 (9/9/62) - a new tv station, WNYS-TV, made its debut. The station was dubbed "Colorful Channel 9" even though all of its programming was in black & white at the time.

I was 5 & 1/2 years old when Channel 9 hit the airwaves so I have no memory of its premiere but this video highlights some of the moments from that evening....who knew Robert Conrad could sing? There are also some clips from the 1960's shows and the on-air personalities and programs I remember from my childhood....Romper Room, Charlie's Place (with Charlie Featherstone), Phil Markert and Carl Eilenberg doing a promo for The Markert Place and my personal favorite from the era, Mike Price as Baron Daemon (The Baron and His Buddies). One thing that is not mentioned in the video is the April 1967 fire that destroyed the studio (which would broadcast from Public TV station WCNY until it could be rebuilt) and ended our visits with our beloved Baron. Fortunately, Mike Price would remain with Channel 9 until his retirement 42 years later in July 2009.

Oh - a word of warning....the following videos take about 3 and 1/2 hours to watch. You'll probably want to watch the longer ones one or two at a time.

We turn next to Channel 9 in the 1970's, beginning with some clips of various newscasts, part of a press conference put on by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to promote Ono's art exhibit at the Everson Museum, the '70's revamp of Phil Markert's The Markert Place, the popular children's show Ladybug's Garden and Karin Franklin's talk show Open Line, which features many well-known celebrities of the day.

The following video is quite long (a little over 1 hour and 6 minutes) and it is an extensive look back at Channel 9 during the 1980's. I won't list everything covered here but highlights include the Carrier Dome's opening night in 1980, a local MDA Telethon cut-in with Bud Hedinger and Bill "Salty Sam" Everett, The Phil Donahue Show in Syracuse for a week, Channel 9's move from Shoppingtown Mall to its new studios on Bridge Street in 1985, Mayor Lee Alexander's decision not to run for re-election as mayor of Syracuse for 16 years, Bud Hedinger's departure from Channel 9 to Orlando, FL (where he still works today), the 1987 murder of Sheriffs Deputy David Clark and the bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 35 Syracuse University students 1n 1988.

Moving into the 1990's, highlights include coverage of Operation Desert Storm in Iraq (in which Channel 9's Mike Price served as a communications expert), the Blizzard of 1993 (including a report from future Congressman Dan Maffei), the death of former Syracuse Mayor Lee Alexander, the 1998 Labor Day Storm and what turned out to be a non-eventful Y2K.

This video is the longest of the bunch at just under 90 minutes and it takes Channel 9 into the 21st Century. There are too many stories covered here to mention them all but the highlights include the coverage of Hillary Clinton's election to the U.S. Senate in 2000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the beginning of the Iraq War, the Syracuse University men's basketball team winning the NCAA championship and the inevitible announcement by Carmelo Anthony soon after that he was entering the NBA draft, the premiere and evolution of Bridge Street (spotlighting hosts Rick Gary, Julie Abbott, Carrie Cazarus, Christie Casciano, Chris Brandolino, Tanja Babich and the soon-to-be-depaering Kaylea Nixon), the May 2004 report that gas prices had risen to (gasp!) $2.00 a gallon, various reports thoughout the video of stormy weather in Central New York, Elliot Spitzer's resignation as New York's governor, the world premiere in Syracuse of the Ernie Davis biography The Express, the election of Barack Obama as president, and Channel 9 becoming the first local station to broadcast the news in High Definition. To be honest, I am somewhat disappointed that the passing of Channel 9 veteran Nancy Duffy and the retirement of Mike Price after 47 and 1/2 years with the station were not included but other than that, I thought that this was an excellent conclusion to the 50th anniversary videos.

So there you have it....50 years of Channel 9, from WNYS to WIXT to WSYR, from Shoppingtown Mall to Bridge Street, from Colorful Channel 9 to NewsChannel 9. It's been an amazing 5 decades and it will be interesting to see what the future brings. Happy 50th Anniversary, "Colorful Channel 9"!